17 Silicon Valley Startups Raised $682M - Week of April 28, 2025.
🎲 Masayoshi Son - The Gambling Man 📺 10 Tips for Vibe Coding from YC 📉 Trump Is Bad News for IPOs 🛍️ OpenAI Eyes Online Shopping with Shopify 🇨🇳 Dark Factories: The Future of Manufacturing
Happy Monday!
Here are a few great things to read/watch this week:
🎲 Gambling Man: The Secret Story of the World's Greatest Disruptor, Masayoshi Son - I think this is a must-read book for every venture capitalist.
You can call him crazy, but there’s no denying Masayoshi Son pulled off some of the greatest deals of the century — owning 28% of Yahoo!, 24% of Alibaba, and 90% of ARM Holdings and all before their IPOs. Of course, there were spectacular failures too — most famously, WeWork. This Japanese-born Korean investor and founder is without question one of the world’s biggest disruptors. Take a read (or a listen).
📺 10 Tips for Vibe Coding from YC — Great video on vibe coding and here are their 10 tips for video coding:
Just start! If you’re new to coding, try beginner-friendly tools like Replit, Lovable, or Aqua. If you’re a bit more technical, Windsurf, Cursor, or Claude Code are great choices.
Write a comprehensive project plan: Use an LLM to help you map it out clearly.
Version control matters: Always save and keep a working version before adding new layers of functionality.
Test early and often: Write high-level functionality, usability, and integration tests from the start.
Debug smarter: Throw error messages into an LLM to quickly identify and fix bugs.
Document everything: Provide detailed, clear instructions for your LLM to work more effectively.
Keep it modular: Small files and modular code will make your project easier to manage and scale.
Pick the right code base: Choosing the right framework or base architecture is crucial for long-term success.
Use strong references: Include screenshots and example implementations to give your LLM better context.
Stay playful and experiment: The best projects often come from tinkering and curiosity.
📉 Trump Is Bad News for IPOs - The logic behind the new tariffs — their timing, scale, and scope — appears to exist solely in the mind of the POTUS. Crafted without either transparency or a clear policy process, the administration has injected huge uncertainty into an already fragile tech ecosystem.
Investors who were betting on a 2025 IPO renaissance are now pulling back. After a promising rebound in 2024 — 225 IPOs, up from 154 in 2023 — the momentum is reversing fast. StubHub and Klarna have already hit the brakes on their public debuts, warning of more delays across the board. In this environment, investors are shifting their attention to “safe harbor” sectors: AI, defense technology, cybersecurity, and nearshoring industries — areas seen as more insulated from geopolitical whiplash.
The ripple effects of unpredictable trade policy doesn’t just hit goods crossing borders — they ripple across capital markets, innovation pipelines, and the fundamental risk appetite that powers entrepreneurship. When companies can’t see a clear path to public markets, it’s not just IPOs that freeze up — it’s the entire startup ecosystem that slows down. A thriving tech economy relies on trust, transparency, and visibility — and without it, the next generation of industry giants could be stuck on the sidelines.
🛍️ OpenAI Eyes Online Shopping with Shopify — OpenAI is quietly working on a new ChatGPT feature designed to assist users with online shopping. According to a discovery by TechRadar, OpenAI appears to be integrating Shopify directly into ChatGPT — allowing users to browse, compare, and purchase products without ever leaving the conversation.
The leaked code suggests users will soon be able to describe what they’re looking for, and instead of receiving a list of links, ChatGPT will generate a curated selection of products, complete with prices, ratings, shipping details, and a “Buy Now” button.
OpenAI isn’t just trying to answer your questions anymore — it’s aiming to become the storefront of the internet itself. If successful, this could fundamentally shift the way consumers interact with e-commerce platforms, collapsing the gap between discovery and decision into a single conversation. Watch out Google!
🇨🇳 Dark Factories: The Future of Manufacturing — Imagine factories that never sleep, never switch on a light, and rarely sense a human footprint. By ditching lighting, heating, and air conditioning, these factories are cutting energy use by 15–20%, and quietly rewriting the future of manufacturing.
Dark factories aren’t just about cutting costs, they represent a profound shift in how we think about the role of humans in production. As automation evolves from assistance to autonomy, the future of manufacturing may not be defined by how many workers a facility employs, but by how seamlessly machines collaborate with humans in the dark. Watch this Reel by Rowan Cheung.
Last week a total of 17 startups raised $681.7M in funding, 4 exits:
$602.2M goes to 13 Enterprise startups
$17M goes to 1 FinTech startup
$20M goes to 1 HR startup
$40M goes to 1 BioTech startup
$2.5M goes to 1 Environmental startup
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Edith
X, LinkedIn
Funding (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)
Enterprise
Supabase (open-source relational database) raised $200M Series D led by Accel, Coatue, Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, Felicis
Manychat (AI customer engagement) raised $140M Series B led by Summit Partners
Endor Labs (application security platform) raised $93M Series B led by DFJ Growth
Windfall (people intelligence platform) raised $65M Series B led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital
Listen Labs (AI voice customer research) raised $27M Series A led by Sequoia Capital
SquareX (browser security) raised $20M Series A led by SYN Ventures
Deep Infra (AI inference cloud for developers) raised $18M Series A led by Felicis
Lace AI (revenue intelligence software for home services call centers) raised $14M Seed led by Bek Ventures
Adaptive (no-code app development platform) raised $7M Seed led by Pebblebed
Amplifier Security (autonomous user security platform) raised $5.6M Seed led by Cota Capital, WestWave Capital
Bagel AI (product intelligence platform) raised $5.5M Seed led by at.inc/
Kenzo Security (agentic AI security operations platform) raised $4.5M Seed led by The General Partnership
Exante (AI agents for contract-to-cash) raised $2.6M Seed led by Urban Innovation Fund
FinTech
GreenFi (climate-friendly banking and investing solutions) raised $17M Seed led by Mission Financial Partners
HR
Salsa (embedded payroll infrastructure) raised $20M Series A led by Altos Ventures
BioTech
LTZ Therapeutics (immuno therapy) raised $40M Series A led by Zoo Capital
Environmental
PHNX Materials (concrete decarbonization) raised $2.5M Seed led by Divergent Capital, KdT Ventures, Overture
IPO & M&A (300 miles radius from Silicon Valley)